Lawrence Whiffin was born in Melbourne in 1930, but spent much of
his life in Europe. He competed successfully for a scholarship to
study piano with Roy Shepherd at the Melbourne Conservatorium in
1947, won the Lady Turner prize in first year and graduated with
Dip.Mus. (Honours) in piano and composition in 1950. He then went
to Paris where he studied piano with Blanche Bascourret at the
École Normale de Musique. His studies were interrupted by a
two-year engagement as pianist with the Ballet de l'Europe
touring England after which he returned to Paris, obtaining his
5ème degré libre at the Ecole Normale in 1956.

In 1957 he was accepted as a student by the well-known Schoenberg
scholar residing in Paris, René Leibowitz. Aware of the pianistic
ability of the younger musician, Leibowitz employed him as
repetiteur for his opera recordings. He also included Whiffin as
a student in his conducting classes, which was to stand him in
good stead in his forthcoming work in Italy. During this time he
was employed as pianist for the recording of Michel Puig's
Stigmates, a protest work against the
war between France and Algeria. He also joined a group of
musicians dedicated to the performance of 20th century music
under the direction of Diego Masson.

1960 and 1961 saw Whiffin touring France as pianist for Richard
Martell, an American operatic tenor, followed by a period of nine
years working as orchestral arranger, principally for RCA in
Rome. His arranging and conducting skills took him to the Buenos
Aires Carnival in Argentina and to RCA's pop music festival in
Sitges, Spain. He became well-known in musical circles through
his successes as arranger for some of Italy's topline singers
(Bruno Filippini, Nico Fidenco, Ricky Gianco) and also
international artists recording in Italy (Paul Anka, Jose
Feliciano, Sylvie Wartan, Dalida). Whiffin also worked with Ennio
Morricone who was then at the early stages of his successful
career as a composer for Spaghetti Westerns.

At this time Whiffin combined his work in the commercial world
with his interest in serious concert music. In 1962, in the
middle of his arranging activities in Rome, he was engaged as
speaker in Schoenberg's The Ode to
Napoleon, performed in Milan under the baton of his
mentor, René Leibowitz. He also wrote incidental music for two LP
records for RCA.

In 1970, tired of the superficiality of the pop world, Whiffin
returned to Paris where he was appointed sound effects man by the
film company, Pathé Cínéma, providing background music for news
reels and documentaries, and writing music for, among others, a
documentary on the life of the French author and daring
vaudeville star, Colette, and for the feature film
L'An 01. He again joined Diego
Masson's group in performances of works by Ligeti, Berio,
Globokar and Michel Puig, including the latter's operatic
adaptation in French of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, performed during the
Avignon Festival in 1972 and for two weeks in Paris over the
following Christmas/New Year period.

In 1976, despite the prospect of further work in France, Whiffin
decided to return to Australia following an invitation by Keith
Humble, founding professor of the Music Department at Melbourne's
La Trobe University, to take up a teaching post in the
department. His position at La Trobe entailed lecturing in theory
and composition whilst providing performance possibilities for
his own music. He received commissions from various music
organisations for original works whilst simultaenously continuing
his career as pianist promoting contemporary music.

Back in Australia, Whiffin also initiated a series of
publications titled Contemporary
Australian, (piano, violin, flute) and, in 1987,
produced a text on counterpoint intended for use by impoverished
music students. In 1988 he was appointed chairperson of the music
department at La Trobe, a post he occupied for several years on
different occasions until his retirement in 1995.

Since his retirement, Whiffin's composition took on a new lease
of life: in 1998 his setting for nine instruments and narrator of
the poem, Murchitt: a
daydream, by the poet and playwright William
Henderson, won the Australia Music Centre award for the Best
Australian Composition of the Year. In 2002 his Concerto for violin and five instruments, performed
in Melbourne the previous year, won the Albert Maggs award. The
commission resulting from that award, a five-movement suite
Fiesta for recorder, clarinet,
bassoon and chamber organ, received its premiere in Melbourne in
October 2004.